A monk in worshipful posture, probably the Buddha's disciple Maudgalyayana

The Buddha had two foremost disciples, one a master of philosophy and the other a master of meditation. The latter, a figure with the impressive name Maudgalyayana, appears in this sculpture. He used his meditative powers—which he developed by being reborn in hell many times—to travel the cosmos and create the Wheel of Existence, which establishes the six realms of existence in Buddhist cosmology, including hell, of course.

Maudgalyayana’s complexion is often described as blue, or the color of massing clouds—a consequence, according to traditional sources, of his frequent journeys to fume-filled netherworlds. In one particularly important journey to the hellish land of the hungry ghosts, Maudgalyayana encounters five hundred of the unfortunates, who implore him to persuade their living relatives to make offerings on their behalf, that their awful condition might improve.